Thanks, Greg Abbott: You give Texas a border wall and lotsa guns, but not electricity

It’s about power, but not the grid

Instead of a $250 million down payment to build a wall between Texas and Mexico, perhaps the governor should apply that money to improving the power grid. (June 18, 13A, “Abbott found way to make Texas border wall plan worse”) But that makes too much sense, and the political rewards wouldn’t be as great.

- Ivin Adkins, Flower Mound

If you don’t like it, move

To all the complaints I’ve seen lately about Gov. Greg Abbott, all I can say is: If you don’t like our conservative Texas, maybe you should move to California, New York or Illinois. I appreciate the conservative values of our leaders.

- Donna Bierd, Keller

Tax, don’t eliminate them

So, Christine Emba of The Washington Post wants a world “where billionaires are impossible” and where success is a moral failure. (June 15, 7A, “As the gap keeps getting wider, is it time to limit personal wealth?”) There is such a philosophy already in existence, but not Emba’s made up “limitarianism.” It’s called communism. It has been tried and was a disaster. The wish to limit others and the insidious envy is the real moral failure.

If you want the rich to pay taxes, eliminate all the deductions and go with a straight flat tax. Spare us the pontifications.

- Curtis Basham, Fort Worth

The Texas I am learning about

On June 13, I had to go to Fort Worth for an event. As a new resident of Texas, I was surprised at all the homeless tents along the route. On my way home, I passed an abandoned housing project that was boarded up.

Before moving to Texas, I was so excited to be in a beautiful, conservative state. I now realize we have more kidnappings, shootings and, yes, homelessness than other states.

You can feel safe in your little development, with gates and homeowners associations, but for how long?

- Kathleen O’Brien, Colleyville

Terrible gun comparisons

Totalitarians throughout history have known that a lie told often enough becomes the truth. In Wednesday’s Opinion section, the same propaganda operates in John M. Crisp’s June 16 commentary, “Learning to live in a nation with assault weapons.” (15A)

Whether Crisp’s position is an outright lie or the result of staggering ignorance, the impact is the same: belief that our country is awash in “assault weapons” that can be compared to “machine guns and bazookas.” Semiautomatic firearms are different from weapons used by our military.

Crisp never mentions that some of the places in America with the highest number of firearm incidents have the strictest laws against people owning and protecting themselves and their families with firearms.

- James R. Cooke, Willow Park

Failure in energy and leadership

Why am I sitting here late at night with only one light on, no fan and the thermostat set at 78 degrees?

Why am I sitting here choosing not to wash clothes or dishes?

Why am I sitting here on June 16 worried about my power going out like it did four months ago for three days? And 10 years before that?

Because our Texas Republican leaders have chosen to focus on other issues rather than the power grid. Real leaders solve problems to help people instead of creating problems to enhance their power.

- Hilarie A Benedetto, Grapevine

Thanks for alert about fraud

Special thanks to reporter Brian Lopez for his informative, comprehensive and timely front-page story June 12, “Fort Worth residents warned not to share info on website seeking to ‘verify’ votes.” He helped many people by alerting them that the Tarrant County Elections Office did not send phishing postcards asking voters to verify their information. The district attorney and county judge rightly warned voters to be careful about submitting information to the anonymous sender of these postcards.

- Doreen Geiger, Fort Worth

No sense to go with no electricy

As of Sept. 1, Texans will be allowed to carry pistols with no licensing or training required. Now I have to add a bulletproof vest to my shopping list, along with a generator for power failures.

I thought leaders were supposed to protect us.

- Johanne Timpson, Aledo